Aftab Darvishi and the Daughters of Sol
The music of Aftab Darvishi is something you have to hear. Mystical and engaging, her music transports the listener – and the players – and is one of the nightlights…
Rediscovering Louise Farrenc
Born in the early years of the 19th Century, French composer Louise Farrenc (nee Dumont) began her musical career as a piano student of Cecile Soria (a former student of…
Time to Set Sail!
Our reimagined 90th season has taken us on some wonderful adventures – tangos in Argentina, love songs in Italy, strolling the street of Paris, even beer at Oktoberfest! But now…
Discovering Ruth Gipps
Music was a more than just a passion for English composer Ruth Gipps: it was a way of being. Born in 1921 to a highly musical family (her mother was…
A trip on the RMS Queen Mary!
The story of the ocean liner RMS Queen Mary is one whose length and grandeur nearly rivals that of the ship herself. On the day she was unveiled to the…
Copland’s Quiet City
A composition for trumpet, English Horn, and string orchestra, Aaron Copland’s “Quiet City” took the composer two years to write before it could be pronounced complete. Receiving its premiere on…
Sibelius’ Suite Mignonne
Regarding Finnish composer Jean Sibelius’s fascination with nature, his biographer, Tawaststjerna famously wrote that “even by Nordic standards, Sibelius responded with exceptional intensity to the moods of nature and the…
Elgar’s Serenade for Strings
Edward Elgar’s Op.20 “Serenade for Strings” was written in March of 1892 and was first performed by the Worcester Ladies’ Orchestral class later that year. Musicologists posit that this enduringly…